Launched in 2010, Siri was the first AI application ever. Over time, Artificial General Intelligence has progressed rapidly and has achieved the stage where scientists are making self-driving cars, machine learning (ML), deep learning and much more from it. While in science fiction shows, it defines AI as robots (future of ai) having human-like characteristics. AI technology can comprise anything from Google’s search algorithms to self-governing weapons.
Understanding Artificial Intelligence
Whenever we hear the term Artificial Intelligence, the first thing that most of us usually think of is a robot. That’s because of films and novels that describe it as a human-like machine and that idea stays in our sub-conscious.
Artificial Intelligence refers to the machines or robots that are programmed to simulate human intelligence to perform actions and tasks commonly associated with intelligent beings. The term may also be used for the machines that exhibit traits like learning and problem-solving just like humans.
Artificial intelligence is based on the principle that machines have the ability to think and learn. A machine is able to perform tasks that require human intelligence to mimic the actions that a human can perform. The goals of Artificial Intelligence include machine learning (ML), deep learning, recognition, reasoning, and perception.
Artificial Intelligence is classified into two different types: Weak (AI) and Strong (AI). Weak AI technology system is a system that performs only one particular task. These systems can only simulate human behaviour and perform what their program tells them to. It includes video games like chess and personal assistant like Siri. With advances in technology, previous benchmarks are considered to be outdated. E.g., machines that perform calculations and function to recognize text through optical character recognition does not embody AI anymore. Strong AI (future of AI) technology system refers to those systems which have functioned more like the human brain. They do not work on your request, as can be seen in weak AIs. Strong AI-powered machines have a mind of their own and have a complex algorithm. This helps them to act in different situations in order to process and make independent decisions.
What type of Artificial General Intelligence exists today?
Artificial Intelligence of today is narrow or weak AI. It can just perform face recognition, internet searches, or only self-driving automotive applications. However, the major long-term goal of the researchers is to build a general AI (strong AI). Narrow (AI) is weak. However, it can still surpass humans in some specific tasks like playing chess or solving equations. But once artificial general intelligence becomes much stronger, it will outperform humans in many cognitive tasks too.
History
The term artificial intelligence was first introduced in 1956, but with the advancements in technology, computing power, data volume, storage, and algorithms, it has become more popular today.
At the initial stage, when AI technology was not that strong, it explored some symbolic methods and topics like problem-solving. This technology became more interesting as it grew stronger day by day. The US Defense Department in the 1960salso took an interest in Artificial General Intelligence. They started to program and train the machine (robot) to mimic some basic human actions. They also worked on a project of street mapping. It got completed in the 1970s. Along with this, they also introduced an intelligent assistant in 2003, long before Alexa, Siri or Cortana were invented.
This was the time when early experimentations laid foundations for automation of tasks that are found in today’s computers. Later in the years, scientists designed different systems to augment human abilities with the help of machine learning (ML) and deep learning. These systems include decision making and smart search.
How can AI be dangerous?
Artificial Intelligence is evolving day by day as it overcomes human effort and automates the process rapidly and efficiently. Most researchers agree that a super-intelligent AI can exhibit emotions like love and hate. When considering why AI can be dangerous, experts think of autonomous weapons. These artificially intelligent systems are designed and programmed for modern wars and probably to kill. If such systems fall into the wrong hands, these weapons could easily cause huge casualties.
Moreover, due to their design, these weapons are extremely difficult to turn off and when used in AI wars, humans could plausibly lose control of such a situation. This risk is one that exists even with the weak AI, and it grows as levels of AI intelligence, machine learning, deep learning, and autonomy increase. No doubt, the program of AI is such that where it has a side that is beneficial for the world, it can also adopt a destructive approach to achieve its goal. For example, if you ask an obedient AI car to take you to the airport as fast as possible, it might get you there chased by helicopters. Unfortunately, these robots are not capable enough to understand what you really want as their program is designed to oblige and act according to the literal meaning of the things you ask for.
Applications
The applications of artificial intelligence are endless including different sectors and industries. Its uses include the automotive industry to make self-driving cars, video games e.g. chess and other computer games where the system plays in place of the second player. The future of ai also includes the healthcare industry for dosing drugs, to aid in different treatments in patients and for surgical procedures in the operating room.
AI has been very helpful in the economic sector as well. It monitors and flags any kind of fraud activity in banking and finance such as large account deposits and unauthorized use of debit cards. AI Technology can organize and manage a massive amount of data. It helps social media companies like (Facebook, Twitter, and Snapchat) to arrange billions of user’s profiles in an efficient way. Along with managing such a huge amount of data, it helps to protect it and also make it more safe and secure. AEG bot and AI2are some platforms that use this technology to determine bugs in software and report cyber-attacks and are just a glimpse of what the future of AI will look like.
